Or at least they didn’t when I was playing. It was almost as if they were saying that their whole lives had been about getting a black shirt, why the hell would they want a white one?

They have a mindset that is unique. It’s what sets them apart. They don’t do physical pain. I was laughed at in the tunnel when I twisted my knee and was on crutches in 2002. When I got winded earlier in the same match, they walked past and said all manner of things about my manliness, none of it pleasant.

John Mitchell, the former England forwards coach and the first Kiwi I really spent time with, used to have a favourite phrase when talking about the contact area: “Let the dogs see the rabbit.” He loved it. It was physical confrontation, doing the tough jobs. It was what he was about, the rugby DNA that runs through the national side from their first tour of the British Isles to the team England face today.

I could have watched the quite staggering game of rugby between New Zealand and Australia in Hong Kong last Saturday 100 times. I know the forwards will tell me that one team can’t scrummage, Australia, and the other can’t win a line-out, New Zealand, but oh my goodness. Pace, intensity and lung-busting desire. The game was a frightening gauntlet thrown down to all the players in the northern hemisphere.

I know the All Blacks lost, but that is not the point. New Zealand, and Australia to a certain extent, are playing 3D rugby. If England, or any of the other sides in this neck of the woods, try to follow a one-dimensional approach then they haven’t got a prayer. By that I don’t mean trying to do the most complicated moves, or tricky plays. New Zealand do not throw balls through burning hoops. They are a team in which every player knows his role perfectly, and how he fits in and contributes to the greater good.

Last week I looked at Dan Carter after 30 minutes and he acted as if he was having a Saturday morning stroll. Brad Thorn, meanwhile, was down one knee, puffing, red-faced after smashing a ruck. They are comfortable with what they bring to the table. They trust each other to do what is needed. They have a 360-degree view of the game.

England will need to have the same vision, and for a full 80 minutes, because the other strength of New Zealand is their relentless nature. And it is this that exposes the cracks and fissures in a team’s game plan, discipline, mental strength and belief in each other. In attack or defence they do not let you rest.

During the Tri-Nations that they so completely dominated, the same impressions kept returning – clinical, great scrum, ball in hand, no real thought to kicking it, ruthless, pace.

Richie McCaw is the perfect example of how they play. He seems to be a perfect cog in the greater machine. In perpetual, Terminator-like motion he stretches the offside line, he attacks rucks from every angle, he runs so hard and yet he links when required. He is a genuine global star in a team not blessed with many players who would make a World XV.

True they have Carter, but they are more about the collective than the individual. With this in mind, they have added genuine brain power and streetwise attitude to certain key positions, and they are a better team for it. Nonu’s awesome power in the midfield will be matched by Sonny Bill Williams – strap your tin hats on the big lad is coming.

Kieran Read, the No8 from Canterbury, could argue that he is as influential as anyone. He could not be more All Black if he tried. No nonsense, confrontational, a slab of meat with beautiful hands, high work rate, superb technique. I don’t mean to sound all evangelical, but that is what happens when you start to think about all things dark and Kiwi.

The truth is that they are a very, very good side. But they are a long way from perfect. England have a chance to win. They need to find the same level of belief in each other that New Zealand have. England are not there yet but the trust is coming.

All afternoon England players will have to hold their line and believe that the man inside will make his tackle. They will have to do their job and trust the others to do theirs – because the one thing the All Blacks know better than anyone is that every team have weaknesses. The secret for England will be finding a way to cover up their own shortcomings without killing off their undoubted strengths.